Geographic information systems, mapping applications, navigational devices, and other similar and related products can allow a user to obtain and explore an interactive map by performing actions such as, for example, panning and zooming the map. Many different maps exist which illustrate or otherwise describe the respective locations of various objects, places, roads, political boundaries, geographic features, or items of content.
In particular, as one example, certain existing products can enable a user to customize a map or create a new map, for example, by adding items of content to a base map. Thus, a user can create a new map that shows the locations of various user-specified items of content in a particular geographic region. To provide an example, a user can create a map that shows the locations of currently burning wildfires within a particular geographic area.
In general, maps, including user-generated maps, are useful to convey location information to a person who is viewing the map. For example, the map showing the location of currently burning wildfires can be useful for news reporting purposes, travel planning purposes, or any other purpose for which knowledge of the location of the wildfires is useful. However, for such a map to be useful, a party that is interested in viewing the map must be able to discover and access the map in the first place.
Thus, the existence of such many different maps and, in particular, the ability of users to generate multitudes of new maps, presents certain challenges associated with performing map categorization, map searching, map interrelation, or other map information handling. In particular, techniques are needed to enable search engines to identify maps in response to relevant search criteria, thereby enabling parties interested in viewing the map to search for and discover the map. Likewise, techniques are needed to enable determination of a proximity or inter-relatedness between maps, for example, to enable a user to browse or discover related maps which may convey useful information.